Analyzing The Movie 'Seven'

For my mini conference poster, I am proposing to analyze the move “Seven”. The movie is about a newly transferred detective, David Mills, to the homicide unit in a very urban area where crime and murder occurs very often. There is also a veteran detective, William Somerset, who is on the verge of retirement. In Somerset’s last week on the force, him and Mills get paired on a homicide case that is very peculiar to say the least. The first victim was a very overweight man who was murdered by being force fed. He was also kicked in the stomach which caused his stomach to burst. The second victim was found before they were able to solve the crime. The second victim was a lawyer who was killed in his office and the word “Greed” was written in blood in front of him.

Detective Somerset used this mindset with each clue that he found. He would focus on one detail and look at it until all of the possibilities had been deciphered. He went back to the first crime scene and found the word gluttony written behind the fridge in grease. It was at this point that they realized that the murdering was killing people based on the seven deadly sins and in a way he was killing them with the sins that they committed. They also found victims for sloth, lust, and pride. It was after these murders that he turned himself in to the police. He claimed to have two more bodies, but would only take detective Mills and Somerset to go there. In the end, there is a showdown where John, Doe reveals that he has envied detective Mills “and his pretty wife”. John’s sin was envy and he believed that he had to die for it. He killed Mills’ wife in order to have Mills shoot him and accept that he became the last sin,